About this role.
This Senior Technical Customer Success Manager role manages a portfolio of commercial customers and drives adoption, outcomes, and growth across Kong's API and cloud-native platform. The position combines strategic post-sales customer success with technical fluency in APIs, microservices, Kubernetes, containerization, DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud infrastructure. It partners closely with Sales, Product, and Customer Experience teams while developing scalable, self-service engagement practices. The role is based in Texas, United States, and is designed for a self-directed customer success professional who can navigate complex enterprise technology environments.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
4/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
4/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles.
Core skills
Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.
Sample interview questions
I would begin by aligning on the customer's business objectives, technical architecture, stakeholders, and success metrics. I would then define phased milestones for implementation, enablement, usage adoption, and value realization, with clear owners and regular executive and technical checkpoints. I would use product telemetry and customer feedback to identify risks early and adjust the plan.
I connect the technology to the stakeholder's desired outcome rather than leading with technical terminology. For example, I would describe API management as a way to securely govern and scale the connections that enable digital products and partner integrations, then explain how this improves reliability, speed, and risk management. I confirm understanding and tailor the depth of detail to the audience.
I look for expansion only after understanding the customer's goals, adoption signals, and unresolved challenges. When an additional capability can directly improve a documented business or technical outcome, I build a value-based recommendation with the customer and coordinate with Sales. This keeps the conversation focused on customer success rather than a transaction.
I would identify recurring questions, implementation blockers, or engagement tasks across the portfolio and quantify their impact. I would create reusable playbooks, health-score triggers, enablement materials, or automated outreach for those patterns, then measure changes in adoption, response time, and customer satisfaction. I would continue refining the process using customer and internal-team feedback.
I would quickly assess product usage, stakeholder engagement, open support issues, original success criteria, and any organizational changes affecting the account. I would establish a recovery plan with agreed actions, milestones, executive sponsorship where needed, and a regular communication cadence. I would communicate risks transparently internally and ensure the customer sees a clear path to measurable value before renewal discussions.
Are you ready to unlock intelligence?
If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box – we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.
About the Role:
You will be working at a dynamic and fast paced start-up as a member of the Customer Experience (CX) team. You will be enabling Customers to leverage APIs and microservices to drive their business initiatives in one of the most exciting and innovative technology domains in the industry. This team is responsible for interfacing with our customers throughout their lifecycle helping them realize the value of their Kong investment.
As a member of the CX team you will act as a champion for our most critical asset, our customers. You will be working with a portfolio of customers seeking to identify growth opportunities and ensuring they have what they need to be successful. In this role you will work alongside the Americas sales teams and will have the opportunity to build a large portfolio of Customers.
This is an incredibly exciting and challenging role at the forefront of technology, requiring someone with very strong organizational and communication skills. You will not only be building strong relationships with key customers, you will be pioneering the approach to managing customers by leveraging self service technology and re-usable assets to maximize the value Kong can provide.
Working at Kong presents a unique opportunity to help to modernize enterprise software and learn about how businesses run in the digital age.
Above all you’ll be acting as a stellar teammate for the rest of Kong.
What You’ll do:
Coaching our customers throughout their lifecycle while working collaboratively with the rest of the Customer Experience teams to ensure customer outcomes
Defining what ‘good’ looks like in terms of adoption plans, post-sales engagement, what is recommended and why
Working with Sales and Product teams to ensure our customers are getting the most out of the solution
Helping innovate our tooling and processes to make you and your team more efficient
Working on innovative and cutting edge customer projects
Learning our products and technologies, taking that knowledge and applying it to real world usage
Collaborating with other peers, business partners and groups. Representing not only yourself and the rest of your team but all of Kong and other exciting tasks you may identify to grow our company
What You’ll Bring:
Have a builder’s mentality, seeking to find solutions to complex problems that will make life better for our customers and Kong
Manage a portfolio of commercial customers, looking for patterns that can be addressed through an automated approach using the latest customer engagement techniques
Have passion and determination about our technology and our customers
Be a self starter with strong organizational skills to drive effective customer outcomes
Have a good understanding of complex technology environments
Have great self awareness and strong communication skills
Ideally have prior experience of a similar role within SaaS, Open Source and/or Infrastructure software companies
Have a solid understanding of Cloud Native and the technologies that make it work (Containerization, Kubernetes, Microservices) as well as have a have a foundational understanding of APIM
Finally, understands the value of DevOps, CI/CD and Cloud Computing IaaS
#LI-JW1
About Kong:
Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.
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